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The DA-SR 12 is the second layout of the Stealth Cruiser. It starts with level two cloaking and its only weapon is the Glaive Beam, which is the strongest beam weapon in the game. It lacks the Titanium System Casing the Nesasio has. Instead of three Humans, the crew is composed of two Humans and one Zoltan.

The DA-SR 12 can be tricky to get started with, but once you learn how to handle it the ship has striking advantages if you can survive the first sector or two. For this reason it's actually a reasonable ship to try if you're having a hard time beating the game on Normal: you may have a few quick restarts early on, but once you get going it's more likely than many ships to dominate the later stages.

You have no shields, level two cloaking, and your only weapon is the Glaive Beam. It's the most powerful beam weapon in the game, but it takes twenty five seconds to charge(22.5 seconds if you man the weapons station) and your cloaking only lasts ten. You'll need to avoid getting hit in the weapons bay long enough to fire the Glaive, but once it goes off you usually won't be taking any more damage that fight. For many fights, you'll want to cloak after the enemy ship fires its weapons, just as the projectile appears on your half of the screen (pausing helps). Reroute the power from oxygen to the engine to maximize your chance of evasion until the projectile passes; you will have an 80% chance of evasion during cloak which will allow you to duck most (not all!) of the enemy fire. Generally the wasted first shot will take around 10 seconds to charge up, the cloaking buys you 10 more, and the glaive beam should beat the second salvo by five seconds. If the enemy ship has a teleporter or a combat drone, however, you may want to cloak immediately instead: this will still delay the enemy's weapons from charging, while also delaying e.g. the arrival of boarders so that you can keep your weapons manned and charging for longer. Note that if the enemy has Ion Blast II, you will need to absorb some shots. If any hit your cloaking or weapons, escape is probably your only option. If an enemy anti-ship drone is about to target your cloak or weapon system, cloak immediately and hope they don't hit them again after your cloak is expired.

Your first upgrade should be the cloak, as the 15 second duration will generally allow you to fire the beam before the enemy gets the chance to return fire. Then, it will seem like a LONG shopping list of holes to be filled awaits, but you should prioritize with care. Your first goal should probably be an additional weapon to remove shields prior to firing the glaive beam: your natural strength is your cloaked alpha strike, so keep it up to date. You should then try to build up a surplus 125 scrap so that you can pick up shields as soon as you find a store that carries them - powering the shields will then be a further expense, but once you've got the system installed you can take care of that as you go. Meanwhile engine upgrades, energy bars to power all the systems, and combat-capable crew members to deal with boarders are all desirable. Unlike the Nesasio, the DA-SR 12 does not have the titanium casing to be sold conveniently for 50 scrap, and you'll usually want to hang onto the Long Range Sensors to help avoid deadly asteroid fields.

Do not hesitate to squeeze the power out of your oxygen chamber to maintain high priority systems and save the cost of one power bar between major upgrades. Remember that you can partially or fully depower your engines when no enemy fire is immediately incoming, and repower them for evasion only when inbound fire is imminent.

Though the Glaive Beam can theoretically be sold for a tidy sum, you'd be giving away the principle advantage of the ship, even more so because you only have 3 weapons slots to generate damage with. A Weapon Pre-igniter augmentation provides a huge advantage if you can find one, so run a 120 scrap surplus whenever you can, but it's hardly a necessity if you learn to use your Glaive and Cloak together properly.

You must carefully consider which sector to visit next, even more so then the Nesasio as you have neither fast-firing weapons nor Titanium Ship casing to protect you from a disaster in prolonged combats. Favor Rock, Civilian and Pirate sectors if possible. Avoid Zoltan and Rebel sectors at all costs, at least until you get shields.

For those wanting the game to be more challenging, you have now met the ship that will challenge you throughout every sector of the game. Good luck!

Consider putting your Zoltan in the engine room; that way, if he has to leave the room in a hurry, your Glaive Beam doesn't go offline because you forgot to free up one power beforehand. The disadvantage is that you can't fully divert engine power to other tasks (such as the third bar of your level 3 cloaking, once you obtain the upgrade).

Your first upgrade should be level 3 cloak, for the reasons mentioned in the previous section. It will dramatically reduce or eliminate the damage you are dealt in the early sectors. Aggressively seek early fights to build up the 50 scrap needed as quickly as possible: this usually works and if it fails you'll have invested very little time before you restart.

Fire the Glaive Beam properly. Ideally your first hit should be the shield room, as that will increase the damage to all subsequent rooms. You should also be targeting the enemy drone and weapons bay, to reduce your incoming damage and give the Glaive Beam time to charge again if necessary. Many early ships can be killed in one shot with proper aiming: look for situations where you can hit 4 or even 5 rooms instead of merely 3. Sometimes hitting priority targets will require you to target fewer rooms, but keep on the lookout for situations where you can do a bit of extra damage e.g. by adding an extra room before hitting shields that you couldn't have added if you started the beam in the shields room. You will learn the best place to aim on each type of enemy very quickly.

Think very hard before refusing a surrender or bribe. Naturally, always accept if there is an augment or weapon on the table. Missiles or drone parts aren't valuable to this ship early on, but can be sold at some beacons for scrap. Only refuse if the offer is poor, and you won't take any damage by trying to kill them outright. Keep an eye out, though, for enemies trying to surrender part way through a Glaive Beam strike: no need to accept a mediocre surrender if just letting the beam finish its run will destroy them!

Getting a small second weapon should usually take priority over finding a shield system early in the game. You're flying a cloaked alpha-strike ship, so double down on that ability rather than paying through the nose for a defense that will begin very weak anyway. Even a tiny one or two power laser is actually ideal, because it will reliably reduce enemy shields allowing the Glaive Beam to keep up its devastating strikes deeper into the game. After all, who needs shields when none of your enemies ever get a chance to shoot back!

You will ultimately want a Shield system for the final boss, though, so once you are past the early survival crunch start saving up your 125 scrap and pray to the space whales that you get enough before you reach sector 8.

As you continue through the mid-game, remember that you only have three weapon slots, and that the Rebel Flagship at its best is defended by four layers of shields and a Defense Drone(in the third round it has a energy shield). You need enough weapons to do the job, and this usually means Burst or Hull Smasher Lasers, Ion or Breach bombs, and probably an Anti-Ship Drone as well. Missiles are wonderful for the majority of the game but nearly useless against the boss. Plan accordingly.

Fortunately you have Long Range Sensors, since you must always avoid asteroid fields early in the game. Plasma storms can also make it nearly impossible to power your weapon early on, and so should be shunned as well. Seek out as many enemies as possible, and first strike them into oblivion.

Bird of Prey: This can be unlocked by destroying a ship during a single cloak while the ship was originally at full health. In sector one, upgrade your cloak to maximum, find an unshielded auto-scout, and use your weapons. This should unlock the achievement. (Pretty damn easy with this ship!)

Phase Shift: This is a tricky achievement. The easiest way to unlock it is to fight your way to the Rebel Flagship. Once you get to the third stage, cloak as the power surge is fired and you should unlock the achievement.

Tactical Approach: You must not jump into an environmental hazard until sector eight which includes asteroid fields, ion storms, and a nearby sun(but not nebula). Usually one of the easiest because you will typically avoid these. However, sometimes this achievement is made impossible by the routes one must take in some sectors. (If you run around in civilian sectors a lot! This is easy!

The first layout is the Nesasio, which is a stealth ship. It has lower cloaking than the DA-SR 12, but has a higher engine ranking and an augment called Titanium System Casing which has a fifteen percent chance to negate damage done to systems. It starts with a Dual Laser and a Mini Beam. You can read more about the Nesasio here.

The newest layout, The Simo-H, is unlocked by reaching sector 8 with the DA-SR-12, with Advanced Edition Content on. This layout, if I can ever figure out how to make its own page, features the same mini beam of the original Nesasio, along with a modified charge laser that uses less power. The medbay is replaced with a cloning bay, meaning that healing can only be done by jumping. It also starts with no shields nor cloaking. It's only defense is a super-shield drone that produces one unit of a Zoltan shield occasionally. It further has a anti-Combat drone.